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I got challenged by Minja to show my blogging scenery. Luckily I am in Helsinki, since at Tampere I`m currently forced to blog at the university computer centre (haven`t got internet access in my apartment there, yet), and there`s nothing exciting about that. Well, not that these photos are actually exciting...
This is where I blog right now. On the floor, because I moved my dinner table with me to Tampere, and haven`t gotten around asking friends to help me with getting an old table from the attic. Any volunteers?
And this is what I see if I look out the (extremely dirty, oh my) window. Even if my room in Tampere doesn`t have many perks, the view there is a lot nicer! Apple trees and maples instead of buildings and cars (though I think these buildings are quite nice, if you have to look at one).
I`ll pass the challenge on to Sandra and Kristy, if they`re interested to take part in it.
In the top photo you can see part of my new poster waiting to be hung on the wall above the table (after I get the table). It`s a reprint of a 1959 advertisement for Jaffa lemonade by a Finnish graphic designer, Erik Bruun. Here`s a site where you can see some of his posters and even buy some, if you`re in Finland (this site is in Finnish only), and see my Jaffa poster in whole (use the arrows). I`ve been hoping to find the right poster for my yellow wall a long time, and this is it. Too bad I`m not here every day to see it! I miss my yellow wall in Tampere.
By the way, I learned from Wikipedia that Bruun submitted a proposal for Euro notes which featured animals. It`s a pity we`re not using notes with animals now, isn`t it?
I love the autumn light. Also, I`m cheating - these photos are from a year ago.
the last flowers of autumn :: a dash of pink
Visiting my parents in Eastern Finland.
Bottling lingonberry (what a funny word - half Swedish) juice with Mum. I`m taking some with me. I love lingonberries.
Most of the weekend it`s been raining. But now I at least have Kristy to blame :) (read her comment on seen in helsinki).
A week ago I got a (long overdue) haircut. As usual I let my hairdresser do mostly what she wanted - otherwise I think I`d always have the same cut. This time I only told her about the fringe I`d been thinking about, and she worked from there.
BEFORE:
And I love it! I even love the failed dye job. My hair was meant to be a dark chocolate brown, not strong coffee blackish brown, but either the hairdresser mixed the dye wrong or we just chatted for too long when I had the dye in my hair... Anyway, I wouldn`t have dared to choose the colour myself but like it a lot.
AFTER:
It`s funny how a new haircut makes you feel like you could be someone else for a while (or at least it makes me feel that way - maybe I`m a bit silly). I think that my hair could belong to someone way cooler than I am, maybe a dj who has tattoos and draws a comic. Now I totally don`t know where that came from, but either way, new hair makes me feel somehow new altogether for a few days. Yes, I`m that shallow.
My friend J was at hairdresser`s (another hairdresser) at the exact same time as I - no, we didn`t plan it. Afterwards we met for a coffee and gushed over each other`s hair. I think J`s hair is pretty cool too, too bad I didn`t take a photo of him too! I think we should`ve gone out to show off our new hairdos, but alas we were too tired and stayed at home watching a movie. Still I think my hair deserves to go out soon... How about a night out, Helsinki peeps?
(Sorry about the photos - I took them myself in bad light and hurry.)
Right after Kristy* commented how sunny it looked around where I live, it`s been nothing but rain, rain, rain. Or mostly, anyway. Plus I seem to be getting a cold - but I`m planning to fight it, there`s no way I have time to get ill right now!
*Here`s a warning if you go see her blog: she`s been baking lately, and just looking at those photos will make your mouth water - so be prepared to get a yearning for something sweet and chocolatey!
A couple of weeks ago I saw these Pantone mugs displayed in the window of a store called Pino (Finns, they have a web store too!). I got an urge to buy them all and display them nicely on an open shelf...
Been travelling back and forth between Tampere and Helsinki, plus getting accustomed of being a full time student again (I love it so far!), but will be getting back soon.
My studies have started in earnest, and I`m trying to get my mind around the fact I do, in fact, live here in Tampere now. Not to say that`s a bad thing; it`s just a new thing, after seven years in Helsinki, and I wonder how long it`ll take until I stop feeling like I`m only visiting.
My tiny room is in the top floor of a 1940`s house. The neighbourhood is quiet, going from my place to the university (2.5 km - one mile) I walk mostly past houses as old or older, some with nice gardens. There`s also a fairly large park nearby. Unfortunately I live opposite a warehouse, and there are some more warehouses or industrial buildings (and not the pictoresque 18th century ones) behind that... But I try not to walk that way.
On the photo above is the house I live in. You wouldn`t believe there are nine flats in that house, would you? My flat is in quite a poor condition, I think nothing`s been done there in about 40 years, but that`s what you get wanting to live cheap, I guess... But it`s not as cute as you think by looking at the house! It wouldn`t be that bad if the guy who lived there had cleaned the flat even once while living there - it certainly looks like he never did. Let`s just say that I was close to tears when I first went there after I got the keys and saw the place without furniture hiding the dirt (yes, actual dirt). It is getting gradually better, but still a lot of scrubbing to do...
On the plus side: this photo is taken from my window. In the evenings the scent of apples greet me as I come home. Brings me joy every time.
Things that made me happy today:
-a good night`s sleep
-sunny weather
-surprisingly good Indian-esque veggie dish at the university café
-my cousin promising to loan her bike to me (and it`s light blue! cute)
-getting some practical things done, like buying and hanging a pendant light - it certainly does a difference
-the scent of apples in the air when I came back to my apartment in the evening
-my new favourite spoon by Hackman; I happened to see it while looking for something else, and had to get a frog-spoon for me and a fox for a certain someone... (couldn`t find the information on their English site)
you can see me in the pic too! that wasn`t intentional...
I love that big cup. I use it for coffee on special days, especially those days I have time to make café au lait and read magazines in the morning, maybe even eat a croissant if I feel like pretending I`m in Paris or something - though Finnish croissants are nothing like the ones in France. Or I eat yoghurt or even cereal from it. Can`t remember who`s the designer of the cup though... I bought it from Design torget in Stockholm a couple of years ago, and still regret I didn`t buy a sky-blue one too. (Okay, I did have extremely little money at the time. But still.) It`s surpringly thin and light for being such a large cup, and I`m always worried it`l break - that`s why it`s only for special days. Or days you need to make special with choosing a special cup. :)
This photo describes my weekend really well:
sleepy toes
Apart from sleeping in, I spent a lot time with friends and devoted some time for shopping. A good end for an exhausting week - sorry for all the whining. Moving on, I promise...
I haven`t really had the time to look at all the feet week photos around yet, but I love this one by Astrid (found through by Shash).
My whole day was devoted to moving. It wasn`t as hard as I thought - I didn`t have that many boxes of stuff after all. Actually me and sis were mostly quick and efficient (thanks to P who helped us load the car!). The hardest part was putting together my new Ikea bookshelf ...I guess everyone who`s ever put together Ikea furniture knows what I mean! We also found a pizza/kebab place near the apartment, it was surprisingly nice - and the pizzas were huge.
ready to go...
The weekend will be devoted to some cleaning here in Helsinki and meeting friends. And taking time to think about the feet week photos - mostly I`ve snapped them in hurry to do something else. Like today. Sorry!
my feet in the morning light - and my jeans really aren`t as long as they seem!
I`m so glad this week is almost over. It`s been a very stressful one: the first days in the university (I`m very good at getting stressed about things like that and feeling like I`m doing the wrong thing etc.), moving, and something happening that made me worry about a friend - a lot. And because of/in addition to that I`ve slept too little, or not at all, most nights*. I even kind of began to hope I`d be a smoker, just to have something to calm my nerves while high on caffeine and adrenalin. I`ve tried crocheting instead, because smoking my first cigarette ever and choking on the smoke at this age would`ve just been too embarrassing! Oh well, life goes on, things will get easier with the time, even the extremely difficult ones.
*I blame my insomnia for the bad English in the last few posts - I better shape up before I have to write my first paper!
Moving tomorrow. Coming back to Helsinki for the weekend though. I still can`t quite understand I`m going to live in another town! Still some packing to do...
Red shoes (these were a late sale find) make the world feel a bit better place when you`ve slept too little. Also, a beautiful day today: in the morning it was cold and misty, and in the afternoon I sat in the sun between lectures, reading a novel. The air was so fresh and everything seemed shiny. Also I managed to bump into the only person I know from the entire university, a friend of a friend, she`s a very nice girl. (Also it`s kind of funny that one of the 21 people who began to study English translation with me knows my friends K & J from another town - well, it`s a small world, and Finland of course is even smaller.)
I think I may have found my early autumn enthusiasm, at least I`m getting there.
On Monday I couldn`t get online, on Tuesday something happened that kept me from posting. Here are the pics though (and anyway, it`s still Tuesday in London, for example!).
In the stairway of my building in Tampere
in a fitting-room
My week seems to be a mess, and it`s only been two days! Hope your week is at least a little less emotional.
So now it`s officially autumn. I do like autumn, especially September, when the trees still have leaves and they start to turn yellow and red and orange. There`s so much of autumn to like, like evenings getting gradually darker, candles, woollen socks, the quiet comfiness of sitting home at night and reading or maybe listening to a good cd. And then there are those crisp, cool, sunny days which feel like a gift since you expected it to be rainy and you feel blessed to have those days of sun before winter.
At the moment I`m a bit perplexed by the fact that summer is over - the weather here has changed and it`s been clear for the past week that this is it, autumn`s really here. Maybe it`s because summers fly by so fast when you`re working (one of the few things I hate about adulthood: time goes so much faster than when you were a kid, or a teenager even). Or maybe it`s just me having a hard time adjusting to the changes in my life. I don`t think I`ve really realized I`m moving, even now the d-day`s only a few days away (on Friday this week, to be excact). I`m not having second thoughts, really, since I`ve known for a long time that I need change, and I do feel excited about studying something new. But the excitement is somewhat dimmed by the thought of leaving Helsinki, my home and friends. I`ve noticed how much I really like Helsinki, and though I`ll visit often I can`t help but miss living here already. Another thing is that I realized all the plans with friends will be put on hold until my next visit and, wonder of wonders, their lives go on here even though I`m not a daily or weekly part of it all.
(I do know all this is silly since it`ll take me only two hours on train to visit Helsinki, and despite I`ll be living in a strange town where I know only a couple of people everything will surely be fine. I don`t need to be assured of that. I just need a couple more days to wallow in my moving-away -anxiety, then I´ll be fine and dandy and ready to face new challenges. Really.)
I`ll be heading to Tampere tomorrow to take part in some beginning of the academic year -stuff, then back to Helsinki by Wednesday and packing and moving and organizing a going away party (would somebody do that for me? please?) so probably won`t have much time for blogging, or many coherent thoughts to write down. Will try to post the feet week photos every day though - that`s partly why I joined, to keep something happening here even though I`ll be busy. Have a good week, all!
The photo is from the year 1963, probably taken by my grandfather. My mum, then 15, and my two cousins, aged 6 and 4, at the summer place my grandparents used to have.
